Locked out: Sky broadband outage hits online banking apps August 20, 2021 A string of online banking apps, including HSBC and Santander, all experienced malfunctions this morning, which was down to a Sky broadband issue. Hundreds of customers had reportedly been locked out of HSBC, Santander, NatWest, Halifax and TSB apps and online banking websites. The banking app for TSB was also thought to be experiencing an [...]
Profits more than double at OneSavings Bank August 20, 2021 OneSavings Bank’s profit surged in the first six months of the year driven by a sharp uptick in lending activity, according to results published today. The specialist lender posted a 123 per cent rise in pre-tax profits in the year to June 2021 to £221.9m, up from £99.3m in the same period last year. The [...]
HSBC launches legal action against El Salvador to recover $50m August 20, 2021 HSBC has launched legal action against a South American nation in a bid to recover almost $50m it thinks was wrongly awarded against it. The UK’s largest banking group is suing El Salvador over a dispute dating back to 2007 that is understood to be mainly focused on a $2m loan made to a local [...]
Exclusive: ‘When I started, diversity didn’t really exist’, says Bank of America’s international head of ESG August 19, 2021 In this series, Morning Wire zooms in on a range of successful women in the Square Mile, some being movers and shakers in their respective fields – rule makers, not rule takers – while others are rising stars worth keeping an eye on. Today: Andrea Sullivan, international head of ESG at Bank of America. An M&A [...]
Mastercard faces £10bn class-action lawsuit in UK August 19, 2021 A UK court has approved the UK’s biggest class action lawsuit of over £10bn against global payments processor Mastercard on behalf of 46m consumers, according to reports. The previously rejected lawsuit was formally certified on Wednesday to go to trial by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London. It will be the first mass claim [...]
Lloyds eyes 50,000 homes in push to become UK’s largest landlord August 19, 2021 Lloyds Banking Group is eyeing up buying 50,000 homes in the next decade to let out to renters as it pushes to become one of the UK’s largest landlords, according to reports. Reports in the Financial Times say Lloyds has launched the Citra Living brand in a bid to move into the private rental market. [...]
John Lewis launches investment products as it looks beyond retail for revenue August 19, 2021 John Lewis has today launched investment products for the first time ever, as the retailer ramps up its plans to find revenue streams in other sectors. Entering the investments market is, the company said in a statement, part of its longer term ambition for 40 per cent of the company’s profits to come from outside [...]
City figures warn London’s financial crown at risk if UK does not roll out digital Sterling August 18, 2021 City figures have warned that London’s status as Europe’s financial capital will be in serious jeopardy if the Treasury and Bank of England are slow to introduce digital Sterling. Rishi Sunak said last month that the Treasury was looking into one day releasing a so-called “Britcoin”, but that no decision had been made. Sunak said [...]
Wealthy City bankers ‘ditched the UK for the EU ahead of Brexit,’ survey finds August 18, 2021 Almost a hundred highly paid bankers left the UK ahead of its formal exit from the EU, the bloc’s banking watchdog said today, in a sign of how Brexit has impacted the Square Mile. The European Banking Authority (EBA) said in its annual survey of bankers earning more than €1m (£850,000) that the UK’s total [...]
FCA warns equity crowdfunding CEOs of consumers making ‘high-risk’ investments August 18, 2021 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has written to the CEOs of equity crowdfunding platforms, to warn them that consumers are still making “inappropriate high-risk” investments despite the current marketing restrictions, as first reported in P2P Finance News. The FCA said crowdfunding firms should “promote investment opportunities appropriately so that consumers can understand the risks these [...]